Unlucky Grey Missile has finally drawn a good barrier as he heads a big team from the Toby and Trent Edmonds training partnership at the Gold Coast.
The Edmonds partnership has lived up its vow to support regional racing and will play a major hand at the Gold Coast as it closes in on 100 winners in a season for the third time.
Racing Queensland has split the state into five regions to try to combat the conronavirus outbreak.
The southeast corner is further split into two of those regions which had created the unusual situation of the state having two major metropolitan meetings a week – the Gold Coast and Doomben on Saturday.
The Gold Coast-based Edmonds partnership can have runners at their home track, Ipswich and Toowoomba but not in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
They can also have runners in northern NSW and have put plans in place to send stable stars Vanna Girl, Winter Bride and Tyzone to Sydney.
There is no restriction on horses travelling but it takes some juggling to have a designated person be responsible for them at either end of the trip.
The partnership has accepted with 12 horses on Friday, including Grey Missile in the Open Hcp.
The former top North Queensland sprinter has been caught deep in both runs since going to the Edmonds stable.
“He has been second at his past two starts and it is no understatement to say he should have won both,” Toby Edmonds said.
“Grey Missile has been very brave and from barrier four on Friday he will get his chance.”
Edmonds said jockey Ryan Maloney had stayed loyal and elected to ride in the stable’s region and he was keen to reward him with plenty of winners.
“We are committed to helping keep racing going in what is a global pandemic,” he said.
“We have just got to get through it and if that means racing in zones we will support it.”
Edmonds said he had a responsibility to the industry, his owners and staff to keep going.
The Edmonds partnership has had 88 winners this season to be 11th on the Australian trainers premiership.
